Gameplay
On this page, you will find tips on certain aspects of the game, and steps on what to do if your game crashes. It is essentially a beginner's guide, but may be beneficial to experienced players as well. General Tips *It is a good idea to keep decorations and fun buildings once you have them, even if you do not want them anymore. You will only gain a nominal amount by selling them - and you will never get back that you spent on them. They will not take up space in your village since you can simply put them away in the inventory. And when you get a mission that requires you to place certain items next to each other, or to collect from something a number of times, it will save you from needing to buy items again or allow you to complete a mission faster by having extra buildings to collect from. Additionally, you may be glad to have extra buildings if they are involved in a holiday event so that you can collect more Holiday Tokens. *Look ahead at what Missions will be coming up to prevent wasting resources. For example, there is a mission to buy a Snowboard Half-Pipe that will not recognize one you purchase before getting the mission, so it would be prudent to wait to purchase it until you get the mission unless you don't mind buying two. It can also help you complete missions more quickly. For example, you may start incubating animals that will be necessary for upcoming missions first, so that those families are already complete by the time you are given the mission. *Many players go through phases where they don't want to spend as much time in their village, but they often still check in once a day or a few times a week to see if anything new has popped up. If that's the case for you, here are some things you might want to do while you're there to make sure you're in a good position when you regain interest in playing more. **Collect silver coins from the mini-games and collect from any holiday kits. It's quick and easy and you'll be glad for a stockpile of silver coins when you get back into the game. And holiday kits take time to level up and they're important for collecting holiday tokens. Even if you do nothing else, this will be very helpful to you later on! **Collect any snow piles and leaf piles if you're willing to visit dino world too. Again, silver coins! **If you have collect frenzy to make it quick, or if you're willing to do it manually, collect from animals and fun buildings. **If you're willing to spend a little more time, go ahead and visit the villages of the main characters and collect from their hyrax tree so that they will collect from yours and keep your hyrax growing. Tricks to unlock hidden gifts and animals *Gameloft has hidden several animals and decorations within the game. Go here for detailed information on these and how to unlock them. Kung Fu Scrat Tips *The first time you play KFS, you are guaranteed to win the Red Sloth as a jackpot prize. Therefore, you should definitely not buy the Red Sloth with acorns before this. *Once you have unlocked Sid's Egg Rescue, it is better to play that instead, because whilst playing, you can often get an acorn, (they appear in bubbles from time to time) as well as the standard prize you win. *If you are looking to play KFS just for the prizes, then it is much more efficient to let the game run, and lose the game quickly. This is because the prize does not depend on your score - it is random - so you are just as likely to win a jackpot with a score of 0, as with a score of 30,000, for example. *When you have a mission involving playing KFS or Sid's egg rescue, you do not have to spend silver coins to achieve the mission - it still counts if you just use the practice option. Acorn Tips Acorns are the premium currency in the game, so spend them wisely. Tips on how to save and have as many as possible are listed here: *After you have completed the mission which makes you use instant finish to speed up the hatching of an egg, it is advised not to use it again, as there is no real need to finish hatching quickly, unless you want to buy lots of limited animals before they leave. *There are frequent sales on acorn packs - so if you want to spend real money on them, waiting for a price drop or an acorn increase in packs (through a sale) is advised. *There are also frequent sales on acorn animals, so it is advised to wait for these too. *Look out for events (holidays like christmas usually mean there is one coming.) These events usually have limited animals to buy (almost certainly with acorns), so get ready to save if a holiday is approaching. Once you have one family member of the limited animal in your village, they stay in the shop forever, so there is no need to rush to get the other members and waste acorns completing the family. If you do, you may not have enough for the next holiday event animals. *There is also no rush to open Dino World early, as there are not a whole lot of new animals or fun stuff that can be purchased with coins or hearts in Dino World until you get higher up in level. So unless you just want to spend a bunch of acorns, you should wait until its free or cheaper. *You should resist the temptation to purchase land with acorns rather than coins. It may seem hard as the coin prices get higher, but you will get used to it. *Try to avoid buying decorations that cost acorns. You will end up with plenty of them from Daily Bonuses, Daily Challenges, and Community Events. Troubleshooting If you connect through Facebook, your game can be saved to the cloud for re-download should you have problems on your device. If you play on an apple device, you can also avoid losing your game data is by frequently backing it up to iTunes on your computer. It's a good idea to sync it right before downloading an update from the App Store, too, so that if the update causes problems, you can delete the app from your device and re-install the good older version from iTunes. If you end up having problems on an apple device, but haven't backed up your data, see if the tips given below help. If you do not connect through Facebook or back-up to iTunes, the ONLY copy of your game is local - the files on your own device. So if you delete the app from your device and then redownload the game from the app store, your progress will NOT be there - you will be starting from the very beginning. Therefore, you should avoid deleting the app from your device if at all possible. Please see if the following work to fix your crashing/loading problems before you resort to deletion: *Exit the app properly (close it down entirely, don't just minimize it) and then shut down your device completely (don't just turn off the screen). Restart your device and try the game app again, hopefully it works. **On apple devices, you shut down your device by holding the lock button down for a few seconds, and then swiping when prompted to shut down. This is called a soft ''restart. If this doesn't work, you should also try a ''hard ''restart. To do a hard restart, hold down the lock button and the home button. Ignore the prompt to shut down, just keep holding those buttons. This will make the device do a longer shutdown process than the soft restart. **If the app crashes again, it may work if you close it and try opening it again repeatedly (one player reported success after doing this for an hour or so). *Check your device's memory (usually in the settings). If there is not enough extra memory space on your device, that could be causing the game to crash. In that case, make room by deleting some other items on your device. *Check the FAQ and known issues on Gameloft's website. One particular question answered might be beneficial to read: ::: ''"'What should I do when my game freezes or crashes every time I start it and I cannot tap anything?'' ::: This can happen when the game is launched and it is checking for Internet access. Please try disabling your Internet connection (or putting the device in Airplane Mode) and starting the game again. If this doesn't help, shut down the device for 2 minutes and then re-launch the game without enabling your Internet connection." *If the above don't work, you will have to wait for an update to fix the bug that is causing the crash. If you decide to wait, remember, do NOT delete the app from your device! Make sure you let Gameloft's customer service know that you are having a problem so that they at least know to have people working on it. If you choose to delete your game and don't have a back-up, remember that your game data will be lost and you will have to start over from the beginning. Changing Device Time Settings Warning: it is not highly recommended you do this, as it can make snowpiles vanish, mess up your daily bonus, or not allow you to give friends gifts. You can speed up the process of getting silver coins, collecting from animals and fun buildings, and hatching eggs by changing your '''device time settings. Steps on how are listed below (IOS): #Exit the app, and change the date forward in your device time settings. #Go back on the app and all of your families, buildings and KFS will be ready to give you coins. #Then, you have to exit again, change the date back to normal and go back on the app. #Repeat the process. (Exit the app, change time etc.)